You Young ranks fourth at World Championship

South Korean female figure skater You Young is looking at her first-ever World Championship medal. If she wins, it would be the first South Korea’s medal in nine years.

Having ranked at sixth in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, You Young scored 72.08 points and finished in fourth place out of 33 players on Wednesday at the International Skating Union (ISU) World Figure Skating Championship’s women’s short program in Montpellier, France. Although she did not break her highest short program score, 78.22 points, You scored her season-best points at her first world championship. Lee Hae-in, who also competed alongside You, scored 64.16 points and finished in at 11th.

So far, Kim Yuna has been the only South Korean figure skater who won a medal at the world championship. Kim won two golds at the world championships in 2009 and 2013, two silvers in 2010 and 2011, and two bronzes in 2007 and 2008.

The likelihood of You winning a medal is very high, as the Russian figure skating trio of Kamila Valieva, Anna Shcherbakova, and Alexandra Trusova, currently top ranked in the world, are banned from participation as part of sanctions against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

You Young delivered a double axel (two and a half rotations) as the first jump. She did not land a triple axel (three and a half rotations), which she had performed at the Olympics. “I felt that my triple axel was not so good at this morning’s practice. So I decided to perform a perfect double axel instead,” said You.

Since her other jumps were not perfectly executed, You did not manage to earn many extra points. “Although I have not fully recovered from fatigue at the Olympics, I was less nervous,” she said. “In that regard, I think this year’s competition may be the opportunity to achieve my goal of completing a clean program.”


Dong-Wook Kim creating@donga.com